Comment on Why can't we go back to small phones?
ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
the obvious answer is that people weren’t buying them enough and that capitalistic markets will not support niche products that serve smaller demographics unless they can either financially justify themselves or earn some kind of government subsidy to sustain the effort (eg for a medical device and even then it’s shaky)
There are thousands of cool things that have died because they weren’t financially viable. That is what it is, but what’s more frustrating is that the technology behind these items and ideas is then almost always kept under lock and key forever, lost to the ages, because of the sliver of hope that some portion of it may somehow become a part of some new project. Instead of sharing the information to allow for collaboration and building on what was already established, any future projects need to now start from scratch. Otherwise they may infringe on the creators ability to secure earning potential you see, and that justifies drastically slowing the development of human progress in all fields by obfuscating research everywhere
My favourite example is Concorde, which remained profitable throughout its service life but was cancelled because bigger profits can be made with slower planes.
Patents expire after 10 years so technology being locked away isn’t the biggest concern. The bigger problem is the dismantling of supply chains and loss of skills and experience when the workforce moves on.
Concorde was cancelled because one crash instantly turned it into the least safe plane statistically, and demand was dropping.
The crash at Charles de Galle contributed along with 9/11, the sonic boom limiting flights and the inability to fly across the Pacific. Also the plane is super narrow making seating uncomfortable.
Michal@programming.dev 1 day ago
Something tells me the companies sabotaged the smaller phones so they can charge more for the giant “pro” devices.
I opted for the smaller pixel 9pro last year because i didn’t have to compromise (it has the same specs as 9pro plus). My previous phone was 7 pro, it was the bigger model and if i went for the smaller 7 model, I’d have to forego the telephone camera.
ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
There is a large degree of this, at least with some manufacturers. the iphone se referenced being a great example. If you’re a tech dork that wants fancy features you will overlook the se 100% of the time because even if you value a small phone many (basically all) of the bells and whistles on flagship models are gone as the se was based on the low end models from 1-3 generations back. No face id, no 5g, no magsafe, etc
Even for casual users: if you valued photography the se had the absolute worst camera of all the iphones. It was slow, it had less storage (64 gb minimum vs 128gb in the iphone 13 and newer), noticeably worse battery life, etc.